"Labour MP: Bankers show criminal zeal"

From the BBC:

Bankers show "criminal instinct" which could be channelled into illegitimate business, the shadow business secretary will argue.

In a speech, Chuka Umunna will say the skills used by the banks to organise and brand themselves could be used to start successful criminal rackets. He will argue redirecting the energies of the financial services sector could provide them with "a useful sideline".

Mr Umunna is chair of the London Business Forum. The Labour MP, who sees crime as central to Labour's approach to increasing social mobility, will focus on the London area of Lambeth, where his constituency of Streatham is. He is expected to say what most bankers do is "completely unacceptable anyway" and many financiers could achieve success in racketeering if their energies were redirected.

'Legitimate means'

He will say: "If one studies what Lambeth's financial services industry do in more detail, it is both shocking and frustrating - they put a lot of effort into building up their bank's brand. You can find the annoying adverts they produce to promote their activities on YouTube. This brand building is shocking because it glamorises what they do.

"What frustrates me is many of these young people are using skills that if channelled in the right way, would provide them with an alternative route to success. Their venality, used in an illegitimate business setting, could provide them with a useful sideline.

Mr Umunna will say that hedge fund managers view their involvement and activities as a way of "getting out and getting on". Mortgage salesmen seek "to make money first through legitimate means, with a view to building up enough finance to run a money laundering operation later".

"We must make the shadow economy a more feasible avenue through which our young people can realise their dreams even when they have bled aspiring homeowners dry," he will say.